The NSW Legislative Council inquiry into Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage
has extended its deadline for submissions until 31st January 2008. Submissions
were due to close at the end of November and with the federal election campaign
over there is extra time to make a submission. As we have previously pointed
out this Inquiry allows issues relating to the NSW government intervention into
Redfern Waterloo, including the RWA’s activities in relation to the Aboriginal
community, to be considered by the committee - see
explanation here.

The NSW Minister for Housing, Matt Brown, visited Redfern
Waterloo at the invitation of the Redfern Waterloo Chamber of Commerce (RWCC)
on Tuesday 20th November 2007. The Minister met with the Chamber Executive
Committee and walked through some of the Waterloo
housing estate with them. The RWCC produced a briefing note which states that
the “RWCC
members have identified some major areas of concerns that must be addressed now
or in conjunction with any future development plans for the area.” Areas
identified included DoH Administration of the Estates, Plans for Redevelopment of
Estates and the Process for any redevelopment. The statement
also says “Overall the RWCC seeks to work with local tenants and DoH to build a
harmonious community in which local services can be provided to DoH tenants as
well as those for non-public housing tenants and private home owners who live
in Redfern Waterloo”. The statement was released to local media and can
be downloaded from the following link Chamber
of Commerce meets with Housing Minister - 20 Nov 2007 (PDF 32Kb).

At a time of potential uneasiness about the future shape
of public housing in Redfern Waterloo you might expect that the Redfern and
Waterloo Neighbourhood Advisory Boards’ printed Newsletter RedWater News, should be assured of funding as a community
information source. It is currently funded primarily by the Department of
Housing, however the latest edition December
2007 (856 KB PDF) tells readers that it will be the last printed
edition of Redwater News until
further funding can be secured. The Editorial Committee has requested a meeting
with DoH to discuss the future of RedWater News and ongoing funding, but we
understand no date has been set by the DoH. It is crucial with so many older tenants
who do not have access to computers that a printed newsletter is available for
DoH tenants..

REDWatch has decided to focus its December meeting on the
planning being undertaken for the redevelopment of the Redfern Waterloo public
housing estates. With the RWA undertaking another round of meetings with
selected public housing tenants and workers as part of their work on draft
plans and with the Housing Minister visiting the estate as a guest of the
Chamber of Commerce now is the time for people to raise their concerns and
suggestions with DoH and the RWA.

REDWatch has written to RWA CEO Robert
Domm trying to clarify if public housing land will be sold as
part of the public housing redevelopment. This question was also asked of
Minister Sartor in recent Estimates hearings. Mr Domm’s response is provided
below. In our view the emphasis should be placed on the words “current plans”
as it is difficult to see how the RWA will be able to fund its publicly stated
goals to revitalise public housing stock, reduce the concentration of public
housing while increasing the local population and maintaining the amount of
public housing without disposing of current public housing land. My Domm said:

“I am not aware of any current plans to sell or
lease Department of Housing land in Redfern-Waterloo, with the exception of
land adjacent to the proposed redevelopment of public housing in Elizabeth
Street (which is already a matter of public
record). I note that the Department of
Housing's intention to sell this land to partly fund the replacement of 106 old
dwellings with the same number of modern, eco-friendly public dwellings has
received community support, including from the City of Sydney”.

“While the development of Stage 2 of the Built
Environment Plan is a work in progress, the Government has repeatedly made
clear that there will be no reduction in the amount of public housing in the
area. The RWA anticipates that a draft of Stage 2 could be available for public
exhibition by March 2008”.

The December REDWatch meeting has been bought forward by
half an hour to 5.30pm as a result of council scheduling a Community Forum on
the same night. It is hoped that this will enable people to also attend the
latter part of the CoS meeting or to go to a
nearby establishment for an end of year drink. REDWatch meets downstairs at The
Factory, 67 Raglan Street
Waterloo on the first Wednesday
of each month and everyone is welcome.

The City of Sydney is
holding its last Community Forum for the year on Wednesday 5th
December at Redfern
Town Hall, 73 Pitt Street
Redfern. This is an opportunity to talk to Councillors and senior staff about
issues in your area from 6.00pm to 6.45pm, receive updates on local projects,
the grants program presentation and development applications from 6.45pm to
7.30pm and to hear a presentation on the City’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 Project
from 7.30pm to 8.30pm. This is supposed to be your chance to help shape the
future of Sydney
so come along.

There are over 100 proposed changes to tenancy laws being
considered by NSW Office of Fair Trading. Some of the main ones that will
affect public housing tenants’ deal with: rent arrears, evictions, alterations
by tenants, notices and uncollected goods (that are left behind when you move
out). To find out more and have your say go to: http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/corporate/legislation/residentialtenancylawreform.html
or call 9338 8925 to order a copy of the report with the proposed reforms.

Since out last RWIU
REDWatch hosted a successful federal election candidates forum on housing which
was attended by the now Federal Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek. Everyone
present seemed impressed with Tanya’s understanding of housing issues and we
look forward to seeing some of the country’s housing issues being seriously
considered by the new Federal Government.

With the renewal of public housing in Redfern Waterloo
being a major focus in the lead up to the RWA’s Built Environment Plan Phase 2
in March 2008 we thought it might be useful to focus this time on some of the wider
work being done into housing. City Futures is a centre for research into
Australian cities within the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of NSW. City Futures has recently put out
an analysis of social changes in Sydney
between 2001 and 2006 based on the 2006 census data the report is PDF 6 MB and
you can click
here to download report. City Futures is also conducting two on line
surveys - Seniors Housing
Survey and Apartment Living
Survey. The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI),
also associated with the Faculty of the Built Environment, is a national
research organisation established in 2000 that specialises in housing and urban
research and policy which puts out many very well researched papers on housing
issues. If you want to know more about any of these initiatives visit www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/cityfutures
or register to receive the City
Futures Update by email.

In the last RWIU
we reported on the Sydney Morning Herald article Redfern plan backfires:
report which revealed some of the information that the government was
trying to keep out of the public eye about the Redfern Waterloo Street Team
Evaluation. One of the UTS
School of Journalism publications, Precinct
South Sydney Edition, has published an article FOI controversy over street
team which documents REDWatch’s FOI request and the Legislative Council’s
call for the Street Team papers. Precinct
has seen the Draft Street Team Evaluation Report so have been able to discuss
the FOI request with reference to the draft report. One of the article’s
revelations is that the report contains few personal details. The inclusion personal
information in the report was an oft repeated reason for not releasing it. The
FOI Street Team article was a companion piece for another article Secret makeover plans for Redfern
leave locals far from happy which dealt with the broader issue of secrecy
within the RWA.

We have reproduced below
the text of article FOI
controversy over street team from Precinct South Sydney Issue 4/2007 in
November 2007. This article can be downloaded as part of the PDF of this issue
of Precinct Pages
1-11 (PDF 1.2 MB)

“A street team that provide youth services
in the Redfern and Waterloo
areas between 2003 and 2005 failed partly because the model imposed on it by
senior NSW government public servants was "flawed", confused and
needed more community consultation and involvement.

These were findings of the Review
of the Redfern Waterloo Street
Team (RWST) draft report, a copy of which has been obtained by Precinct
southside.

An urgent Cabinet directive
established the street team project in 2001 after negative media coverage about
problems with young people in Waterloo.
The plan was for community education, crisis services, early intervention and
youth activities to be delivered by a single team representing a number of
Government departments and non-government organisations.

The scathing report found as a
result of the flawed plan, experienced staff left, very few children were
helped and that 30 per cent of requests for help were for a "lift
home" -- a service which staff suspected encouraged young people to stay
out at night.

In 2004, the NSW government told
a state parliamentary committee into Redfern Waterloo that it regarded the
street team as one its greatest achievements.

In mid 2005, independent
consultant Penny Ryan from RPR was paid $41,000 by the NSW Department of
Community Services to prepare the evaluation report. She found the original
plan was not "properly thought through". Many people interviewed for
the report identified the imposition of the model from above as a key factor in
the difficulties the RWST later faced.

Ms Ryan found that if future
services were to be more successful there would need to be a "greater
level of collaboration and ownership by community members, parents, young
people and service providers."

The findings were provided to the
Operational Management Group of senior public servants who planned and oversaw
the project. Precinct cannot report if Ms Ryan's views about the flawed
management of the project were included in her final report because the NSW
Premier's Department and the Redfern-Waterloo Authority (RWA) refused to
release the report.

Ms Ryan said she was unable to
comment.

After the government received the
report, the street team project was closed down. Late in 2005, members of the
community organisation REDwatch asked for copies of the draft and final report.
The RWA told REDwatch to make an application under the Freedom of Information
Act. At the outset, REDwatch applicant Geoff Turnbull agreed that any names
revealing personal information could be deleted. In fact, the draft report
contains almost no names of any kind.

In an email tabled in NSW
parliament last year, senior FOI officer in the NSW Premier's Department Ken
Cull advised the RWA that the document "may be Cabinet document in
confidence" because Cabinet had made a decision that there should be an evaluation
of the street team project.

Cabinet documents are exempt
under the FOI act. The RWA refused to supply the document on this basis. In
February 2006, REDwatch asked the RWA to review its decision pointing out that
the FOI officer had the discretion to release a document if it was in the
public interest even if it could be regarded as a Cabinet document.

Mr Turnbull said he reminded the
authority that the object of the FOI Act was to "extend, as far as
possible, the rights of the public to obtain access to information held by the
government."

The Redfern-Waterloo Authority's,
CEO Robert Domm was unavailable for
comment.

A source inside the RWA said that
the authority did not release the report because it "didn't want to put
the young people included in the report in that position at the start of their
careers." There are no names in the report and REDwatch had already agreed
to delete any personal information.

Two years on, REDwatch still
wants the report.

"Without Government making
available evaluation reports it is impossible to objectively assess what has
happened and what has not. All you have is the RWA spin about what a great job
they are doing, and the services experience that little has changed and scarce
human services resources have been wasted," said spokesperson Geoff
Turnbull.”

At its November 2007
meeting REDWatch resolved to continue to seek the public release of the Redfern
Waterloo Street Team Evaluation.

The Aboriginal Housing
Company has met with Department of Planning officers to clarify aspects of
their concept plan. They are currently waiting on the Department of Planning to
formally advise them in writing of any additional areas that Concept Plan needs
to address before it can go on formal public exhibition. Given the Minister’s
current emphasis on shortening the processing times of development applications
it is hoped that the Department will respond to the AHC in the near future.

Well-known Sydney
artist Jane Bennett will be exhibiting her latest show Trains, Cranes & Ships: Eveleigh Railway Workshops and the Hungry
Mile at the National Trust Centre from 1-14 December, 2007. Jane’s most
recent paintings focus on the Eveleigh Railway Workshops in Redfern, the
Hammerhead Crane at Garden Island and the Hungry Mile at East Darling
Harbour. “This exhibition
is about the end of an era – the transformation of neglected industrial
heritage in Sydney.
It explores areas that share a fascinating past and an uncertain future,” she
said. Further information can be found on the National Trust of Australia (NSW)
website www.nsw.nationaltrust.org.au/events/janebennett/default.asp.

Brian Dunnett
from the Trains of Treasure Exhibition Committee has been writing to many
people since the announcement that the Anna Schwartz Gallery will be coming to
the CarriageWorks. Brian is
particularly interested in seeing a place for the display of railway art
somewhere in Eveleigh. At the moment Brian says that there is a collection of
paintings and photographs that were once a feature of all NSW Country railway
carriages that currently needs a home and he thinks it would be good if a home
could be found for them around the old workshop complex. He would also like to
see this as part of a commercial gallery which sells work from contemporary
railway artists such as UK’s Guild of Railway Artists www.railart.co.uk/gallery.html.
Brian has earlier proposed a Heritage Walk be built into the Eveleigh Railyards
Development in his article The
Fate of Eveleigh: More of ‘Ugly Sydney’ or an Enhancement of the Greatest Rail
Heritage Site in the World? (PDF 700Kb).

Brian has passed on the following information he received
from Sue Hunt the CEO at CarriageWorks concerning the Anna Schwartz Gallery: “we
have entered into a heads of agreement with the Anna Schwartz Gallery. Planning
is taking place and we hope that all permits will soon be place that will allow
the gallery to proceed. The Schwartz Gallery will be a commercial gallery,
showing the best of Australian and international contemporary art. While it
will be an important addition to the cultural life of Sydney, its focus is the development of the
careers of the artists in its stable and the selling of their works. The gallery
design itself, as with the rest of the design of the building, will retain
heritage elements the important connection with the past through the
architecture rather than the exhibitions that it presents.”

On Thursday 22nd December 2007 St Andrews
opened their Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Campus within the main St Andrews school campus. The opening was reported by Joel Gibson
the Indigenous Affairs Reporter, in the Sydney Morning Herald of November 23,
2007 in his article School happens on model for
indigenous learning. St Andrews’ principal
is quoted as saying "But we have stumbled, by accident,
upon a very powerful model. The school within a school really works … the kids
are highly engaged, they feel buoyant and their morale is good, so they don't
miss school. And the size has a lot to do with it. The journalist George Negus is reported in the article as saying “Gawura
had taught the mainstream students about indigenous Australia and vice versa”.

We are unable to comment
on the how St Andrews version of a “school within a school” aspects compares
with other educational models used within private schools, but during the
initial consultations to put their campus on the Block we did encourage St
Andrews to locate the Gawura campus at the main St Andrews school. In large
part this was based on the experience of our own children at Darlington Public School and the
benefits for both Aboriginal and non Aboriginal children attending a school
with a positive and prominent focus on Aboriginal history and contemporary
culture.

While it is encouraging
to read that other private schools are considering the advantages to their own
schools of including Aboriginal children by replicating the St Andrews model,
we are compelled to point out that public schools like Darlington have been
successfully working with a range of different educational models for
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal kids in the same school, long before St Andrews
happened upon it as a result of not being able to create a separate Aboriginal
campus in Redfern.

A Development Application has been lodged for a big 2
storey supermarket on the corner of Erskineville
Road and Gowrie
Street and a new group, Village Friends in Erskineville have set up a website at www.erskinevillevillage.org and
are campaigning to stop the proposed development. In their recent media
release they say “Big business is coming to town.
Which do you prefer? Coles? Woolworths? McDonalds?” “There are more appropriate,
commercially viable, development solutions which would retain and enhance the
Village experience for residents, business owners and visitors alike but we
must act now.” There is a lot of
information on the website so if you share the concerns of Village Friends in
Erskineville then please contact them by email at friends@erskinevillevillage.org
and lend your support.

If you share these concerns then
come and learn how you can make a difference at a Community
Meeting is being called for 6th December 2007 at 6pm at Holy Trinity Church Cnr
Erskineville Road & Rochford Street Erskineville. Councillor Marcelle Hoff
has accepted an invitation from Village Friends in Erskineville to chair the
meeting.

The details of the
Supermarket DA can be found on the CoS website
as DA
Number D/2007/1932 and at Neighbour Service Centres. The DA Exhibition
closes on 17th December 2007.

Frasers have been doing a lot of work in preparation for proposals
for the old Fosters site that their architect and design teams are putting
together. Some Chippendale residents were asked to take Frasers head Dr Stanley
Quek on a walk around on 15th November and found they were doing a
residents guided tour for not only Dr Quek but also most of the Frasers
Broadway consultants as well. This was followed by a couple of drinks and
discussion about the concerns of residents groups. On Friday 16th
Frasers met with City of Sydney
Council, state government departments and other
interested groups before holding a feedback session for local residents about
those discussions on Saturday 17th. Saturday also provided the
opportunity for people to raise their concerns with specialists working on
different aspects of the Frasers Broadway Plans. It was refreshing to see this
kind of engagement with the local community but we feel there could have been a
greater involvement had Frasers spelt out the process in its invitation to the
community. For example it was not plain to residents groups that they would be
also showing Frasers consultants around on Thursday evening or that there was a
Saturday feedback session on discussions with government departments,
educational institutions and council which was separate from the opportunity to
drop in and talk to those involved in the project.

Frasers have now reported on these meetings on their
website at November
2007 . The report back provides some details of the companies that Frasers
have invited to undertake work on the site. The Frasers website says: “Representatives
from international architect firms Foster + Partners, Ateliers Jean Nouvel and
landscape architect Jeppe Aagaard Andersen joined with Australian architects
from Johnson Pilton Walker, Tonkin
Zulaikha Greer, Tzannes and landscape architect Turf Design over the three days
to gain a better understanding of the key issues and significance of the
Frasers Broadway site. Frasers has approached these firms to be involved in an
intensive design excellence process over the coming year and is currently
finalising the firms’ appointments.”

The walk with local residents came on the same day that
the Department of Planning placed the Frasers
Broadway (Formerly CUB Site) - Demolition Works (MP 07_0120) proposals on
exhibition. The proposal is for the: “Demolition of structures and buildings
within the site, except for heritage buildings to be retained. The purpose is
to prepare the site for remediation and further archaeological testing prior to
future development. The demolition is proposed to be undertaken in several
stages, including recycling of material generated from the demolition.” The
exhibition notice can be found on the Department of Planning website at Major projects part 3A – on exhibition which
has the link to View project documentation.
Exhibition is until 14th December 2007.

Close neighbours of the former brewery may be particularly
interested in Appendix
L - Indicative Staging Program (PDF 133Kb) which sets out a preliminary
view of what is expected to be happening on the site between now and 2012. Frasers
have now got all the documents available through their own website Documents
page and pleasingly the exhibition documents went up on the Frasers website
within a day of them being formally posted by the Department of Planning. During
the consultation period the Combined Chippendale Community Groups made Comments
on Chippendale Social Context Report v1 - 16 Nov 2007 (PDF 351KB) issued by
Elton Consulting for Frasers.

While we will keep a watching brief on the Frasers site we
will not be running an ongoing commentary on
all that happens. If you have an ongoing interest in the Frasers Broadway (CUB
site) development in Chippendale we suggest you keep up to date in the
following ways:

Register your contact details with Elton
Consulting who are handling community engagement for Frasers and they will
notify you of forthcoming consultation opportunities and updates to the Frasers
website. This can be done by sending an email to broadway@elton.com.au
with your name, contact details and email address.

Register your contact details with the
Coalition Chippendale Community Groups (includes Chippendale Residents
Interest Group and East Chippendale Community Group) and get their Chippendale
News email updates – contact communityworkingparty@yahoo.com.au
.

Waterloo’s Summer on the Green – Friday 7th December
2007

Waterloo’s “Summer on the
Green” will take place on Friday 7th December 2007 within the Green Area beside
the Marton Gardens. The event will be presented in
four stages including 11am – 2pm for the older residents’ picnic themed event;
3 – 5pm for the young people’s Christmas party and 5-8pm for The Factory
Community Centre pearl anniversary family entertainment party. It is proposed
to have appropriate activities such as light music, stage performances,
bouncing castles, BBQ, information stalls, face painting, sports activities and
guest appearances. It is hoped to also mark International Disability Day, and
celebrate the success of local community projects such as the Marton Gardens
mosaic. The event will provide great opportunity for people to consult local
organisations, which will promote their services and groups. If you would like
to host a stall or a family fun activity at any of the events (space is
expected to be limited) or would like more information please contact HCAP at
The Factory Community Centre on Ph: 8399 1011.

Redfern Legal Centre and South
Sydney Community Aid Coop Ltd Multicultural Neighbourhood
Centre are hosting a multicultural morning tea for International Human Rights
Day for African refugees as one of the new and emerging communities. Guest
speakers include Tanya Plibersek MP Federal Member for Sydney, Andrew Sankoh
PhD Student Integration of African Refugees, Paul Power CEO Refugee Council of Australia and
Simon Rice Human Rights Lawyer. There will be a performance by PAPE MBAYE and
NGUEWEEL Percussion Group. Upstairs at Alexandria Town Hall,
73 Garden St Alexandria, Monday 10th of December:
10am-11.30am. For more information contact South
Sydney Community Aid on 9319 4073.

Thanks to funding from the Department of Ageing,
Disability and Home Care, Carers NSW has been able to translate four popular
carer fact sheets in to 15 community languages plus English. The fact sheets can
be downloaded Carers NSW
translated carer fact sheets. The fact sheets are: Carers
NSW; The seven habits of highly effective carers; Carer
support groups and The impacts of a residential placement.

Last RWIU we did
not have a full copy of the November South Sydney Herald and we missed a couple
of items which might have been of interest on Redfern Waterloo issues. The
Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) was seeking expressions of interest from
Indigenous incorporated bodies and businesses in leasing office and retail
space in the a new building situated on the historic site of the Old ‘Black Theatre’ Site.
The ILC’s school site was also covered in the article $30,000,000 Indigenous sports
centre gets the nod. Also of interest is an article Artist-activist documents
change in Redfern about Zanny Begg and the article On guard against racism
which looks at two police incidents creating concern about police Aboriginal
relations.

You may have noticed recently (Sydney’s
crime hotspots revealed) that media reports of the NSW Bureau of Crime
Statistics and Research LGA crime hot spot figures did not show up Redfern
Waterloo as the crime hot spot of the City of Sydney. While the media article
did not mention Redfern Waterloo at all, Redfern Waterloo did rate a mention in
the BOCSAR media release in relation
to three crime areas: domestic violence, robbery and malicious damage.

A recent Daily Telegraph story Dover
Heights mansion targeted in drive-by shooting reported the following
comment from a neighbour who did not want to be identified: "Normally
you hear of these sorts of things happening in Redfern or the western
suburbs,". Lyn Turnbull
penned the following response (unpublished) to the article which we thought
might be of interest on suburb comparisons.

“As a former resident of Vaucluse, whose
parents nearly bought a duplex In Eastern Ave Dover Heights back in 1971 when
we were looking to move from Bondi to a larger house, I don't find it at all
strange that there would be a drive by shooting in that vicinity. As a teenager
living in Vaucluse I well remember my parent's horror when they discovered that
the little boy who lived around the corner, that my younger brother was playing
with, was the son of the owner of a number of night clubs. Fortunately for my
parents’ health It was not until many years later that it was revealed that the
boy's father was also one of Sydney's major crime bosses. I doubt that much has
changed. I have learnt that irrespective of whether you live in Bondi, Vaucluse
or Redfern suburbs are seldom as they are seen from outside.”

Have your say – Summary of Current
Consultations

Below we have listed consultations currently open for
community input and provided a link for further information: